This was planned far in advance. It was my "graduation vacation." OR "We need an excuse to get away . . . hey, you just graduated!" You're welcome, guys. I'm sure we could have thought of something else if I hadn't made it.
Meet my wonderful vacation buddies! The guys are always thrilled for pictures.
We booked the vacation as a package - flight, resort, food and drinks all included. We stayed at Bahia Principe Ambar - which was the adults-only section of a gigantic resort. There were thousands of rooms just in our section!
Before we arrived in the Dominican, we had all these high and lofty plans about how we were going to explore the country during our stay. Before the first day was even over, we had decided that such exploration would not be necessary - the resort met all our present goals: water, sun, drinks.
Our first night there, after being greeted with drinks at check-in and stuffing our faces at the buffet, we headed to the beach party, which believe it or not, was just like it always is in the movies. Hundreds of people dancing and drinking - all dressed in white! It was just so cool. It was the perfect ending to a very long travel day.
The next morning, we realized what a tough dilemma we would be facing every day: beach or pool first? Early on in the week, we settled on a beach first, pool after lunch routine. It worked splendidly.
One morning, Julia and I woke up earlier to take some pictures on the beach.
Every night we ate at fabulous restaurants, often after meeting for drinks first. At some point each meal, we went over highs and lows of the day, which were endlessly entertaining. The lows ranging from, "I hit my head on that umbrella at the beach," to "this lady at the pool somehow had a plumber's crack in a one-piece swimsuit." When THAT is what your lows are - you have truly arrived in paradise.
We each had a day of being sick from the food - but hey, that's the worst that happened? THAT I can handle.
We took the kayaks out one day, Phil and Melissa took the paddle boats out another, and the unanimously voted best outing was the speed boats that we drove to a beautiful snorkeling spot! (And by "we," I mean I drove for about two minutes, and after nearly capsizing the boat, scrambled out of the driver's seat and handed the steering wheel back to Julia.) Our guide offered to take me out and teach me how to drive his boat, but I mysteriously disappeared when we arrived back at the beach, so said "date" never occurred.
Our resort had some bars and clubs, which Julia and I went to a few times. Our "gaydar" was very broken on this trip. We kept chatting with all these guys, thinking that they were gay, only realizing all too late that we were getting hit on - but that's a story to ask me about in person.
It was a week of reading books for hours on the beach, bartenders knowing our favorite drink (Sapphire and tonic, of course), water aerobics with instructors who insisted on being called "Jose Sexy Number ONE," and then having the same instructor for yoga (ah, RUN!), watching the sunrise over the water and just chatting with my favorite people at the pool bar.
Took a walk down the beach to this super weird, but kind of cool palm tree that we had spotted while kayaking!
So this post goes against the very obvious theme of my blog - "getting lost," I get that. I promise you I would have gotten lost at this massive resort if my brothers didn't lead the way everywhere we went. I never knew where any restaurants were, just blindly and happily followed. And the few times that I was alone, there were golf carts with drivers that were more than happy to give a ride to the blonde girl who was grinning and saying, "la playa?" But there is one thing that I hope I accomplished in this post - a real vacation in the Caribbean for YOU in the future possibly?
Me? I'm headed to Boston and Newport this week and Niagara the week after, and don't worry, something is bound to go wrong in my upcoming travels.
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